The Holme-on-Spalding-Moor Village Hall committee was one of 54 organisations that applied for a grant last year from the Humberside Police Authority Police Property Fund, which administers money recovered by the force that cannot be traced to its rightful owners.

The bid, for £1,176, would have seen the installation of three more cameras around the hall, complementing the five already in place that provide coverage around the back and sides of the building.

But the application was not put before members of the authority's communities and partnerships committee last December. Instead, it was filtered out by authority officials.

Had it been approved, it would have increased the coverage available for the investigation into the deaths of Daniel Allan and Ryan Steels in May this year.

The 14-year-olds, who lived next door to each other in Chestnut Drive, were trapped when fire ripped through the garage of an empty house about half a mile away in the East Riding village on May 17.

Daniel died in the fire while his best friend Ryan died two days later at Alder Hey children's hospital in Liverpool.

Neighbours said at the time that several young people had crowded inside the garage to get out of the cold after camping in nearby fields.

Police, who initially treated the fire as suspicious, did not charge anyone in connection with the incident and after a full investigation have handed a file to the coroner.

The village hall committee has asked the authority to reconsider the application at the next meeting of the communities and partnerships committee next Tuesday. In a letter supporting the application, the village hall committee said: "This May has seen an unfortunate incident in Holme which led to the deaths of two young boys.

"We were approached by the police during the investigation and our footage copied for evidence. It would have been useful had we had the planned improvements to our system which would have seen use of one of the older cameras in a position which would give us a view of the road in front of the village hall."

Village hall committee chairman Nick Evans told the Yorkshire Post: "It would have given us coverage of the main road. If anybody had been seen they would have had potential witnesses, but since they had no coverage there was nobody to follow up." He added: "It's on the main thoroughfare in the middle of the village, it's a meeting place where people congregate."

The cameras were wanted to deter and detect vandalism around the village hall.

A report to the communities and partnerships committee ahead of Tuesday's meeting recommends the new application be approved.

Explaining the failure of the original bid, the report says: "Whilst it fully met the criteria, owing to the high number of bids received it was considered that others were more worthy causes at the time."

John Mabbett, the authority's communities and partnerships manager, said: "We originally considered this application against 53 other bids for financial assistance from the Police Property Act Fund in December 2007 and it was unsuccessful.

"When the committee reapplied this year they asked us to reconsider their application, which we will do at the forthcoming meeting... "

The fund has donated almost £25,000 to community groups across the Humberside force area so far this year.